Long time no see! I was trying to decide which one shot to upload next, but I get a lot of requests for stories featuring Ash and Misty without the kids, and I felt like it has been a while since I've done one of those. So I wanted to finish up this one and have it be the next one shot.

Hopefully this one was worth the wait!


What a Chore

"Your parents are great."

Misty smirked as she cast Ash a sideways glance. "You're just saying that because they took the kids for the day."

Ash pouted in response. "That's not fair! You know I love those three more than anything in the world!"

"I do," Misty confirmed. "I love them just as much! But we can both admit that a break every once in a while is appreciated."

"Very appreciated," Ash agreed, his smile returning. "So, since we have the house to ourselves today…what do you want to do?"

Misty raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Well, it isn't very often we get time to ourselves," Ash explained. "We could do literally anything!"

"Like what?" Misty prodded.

"Um…anything?" Ash lamely replied.

"You're trying really hard not to say sex, aren't you?" Misty deadpanned. Ash's face flashed red, but he didn't argue, which led Misty to giggle. "I knew it! I know you too well, Ash."

Ash groaned and leaned against the railing of the staircase. "I like to do more with you than just that, you know."

"I do," Misty repeated, nodding her head. "I just know it's one of your favorites."

Ash rolled his eyes, but the smile remained on his face. "How about lunch? We could go outside and eat in the backyard, almost like a little picnic?"

"It's a very nice idea, Ash, but I've got a lot of work to do around the house," Misty sighed.

"Work?" Ash groaned, slumping his shoulders.

"Yeah, it's hard to get it all done when the kids are around," Misty continued. "They're always fighting for my attention, or they need help with something…I can barely get anything done."

"But chores are so boring," Ash whined.

Misty smirked. "They're not my idea of a good time either, trust me."

Ash twisted his mouth and started to wrack his brain. A huge smile suddenly reappeared on his face, and he announced, "I'll just help you with them then!"

"You? Helping with chores?" Misty scoffed.

"Hey, I'm the man of this house!" Ash cried, puffing out his chest as he placed his hands on his hips. "I've never turned down any chores!"

"No, you just complain about them," Misty snickered. "Besides, you're not necessarily the best, uh…what's the word I'm looking for? Oh, homemaker."

"Homemaker?" Ash repeated. "I'm not trying to be a homemaker, Mist. I'm just trying to help you out around the house!"

"Right…" Misty sighed, arching an eyebrow. "You think you can handle doing the laundry, cleaning the bathrooms, and changing the sheets?"

"Sounds easy enough to me!" Ash boasted.

Pikachu, who had been watching the couple go back and forth from one of the steps behind Ash, scoffed and rolled his beady little eyes. Misty started to giggle, while Ash looked over his shoulder and narrowed his eyes at the unapologetic mouse.

"I did chores growing up, you know," Ash reminded both his wife and partner Pokémon.

"Some chores," Misty corrected. "Delia told me she did most of them and you just helped out with the easier stuff. None of which I just named is the easier stuff, by the way."

"Mom…" Ash groaned, throwing his head back. As Misty laughed again, Ash picked his head up and continued, "I want to try and help, Mist. Seriously. It'll go faster if I do, right?"

Misty hummed before nodding her head. "Definitely faster than if I just do it all on my own."

"Okay, then I'll do my best!" Ash declared, pumping his fist. "What do we start with?"

"The laundry," Misty replied.

"Laundry, huh?" Ash mused. "I did the laundry once when I lived with Professor Kukui in Alola!"

"Yeah, and you flooded the house," Misty quipped. As soon as Ash shot her a look of disbelief, Misty added, "I do talk to a majority of the people who have been part of your life."

"I won't make that mistake again," Ash grumbled.

"Hopefully not," Misty teased. Ash frowned, and Misty quickly reached up to cup his cheek. "I'm sorry, I'm just messing around. I really do appreciate you offering to help me out, Ash. Really!"

Ash smiled and bent his head down to rest his nose against his wife's forehead. "I believe you." Picking his head up, Ash's smile widened to a considerable grin, and he cheered, "Well, let's get to work!"

XXX

Doing the laundry was the first task on Misty's checklist.

Because she didn't trust him to operate the washing machine (his promise to not overload it again wasn't comforting enough), Misty put Ash in charge of folding the clothes she'd already washed.

"It should be easy enough," Misty informed him, pointing at the basket. "Most of the clothes in there belong to Lizzie, so they're smaller."

"You can count on me!" Ash cheered, proudly jamming a finger towards his chest.

"We'll see," Misty hummed, turning to head towards the washing machine.

Behind her, Ash reached into the laundry basket and pulled out one article of clothing: a tiny, flowy white tank top embroidered in black and pink.

"Aw, look how cute!" Ash chuckled. "I always forget how little Lizzie's clothes are. It's adorable!"

Pikachu, who had been watching from a distance, sauntered closer to the basket and began sniffing at its contents. As soon as he picked up the scent, his ears perked and he let out a delighted squeal, standing on his hind legs and burying his face into the pile of clothes.

"You smell her, huh?" Ash asked. He lifted the tank top closer to his face and took a good sniff of it, wrinkling his nose afterwards. "All I smell is laundry detergent. And it's extra flowery."

"Pi-ka," Pikachu replied, picking his head up from the clothes.

"Hey, I got it!" Ash cried. "Pikachu, why don't you help me fold the clothes? That would make it go twice as fast!"

"Chu!" Pikachu trilled. Reaching into the basket with his little front paws, the electric mouse pulled out another top, this one navy blue and printed with little ballerinas in different colored dresses.

Feeling proud of himself for coming up with the idea, Ash began working on attempting to fold the little tank top in his hands. Unfortunately, it was so small that Ash wasn't entirely sure of where to begin. He held it up and carefully eyed it, examining the straps all the way down to the hem. Grabbing hold of both straps, he folded the shirt in half, and then in half again the other way. This formed a neat little square, which brought the big grin back to Ash's face.

"Hey Mist, check it out!" Ash called, holding up the folded fabric.

Misty, who had been busy moving clothes from the washing machine to the dryer, looked over her shoulder and smiled. "Wow, nice job, Ash! That looks really good!"

"Thanks," Ash sighed, puffing his chest out. "I knew this couldn't be too hard!"

"Well, you've only folded one shirt so far," Misty reminded him, nodding towards the still-full basket. "Don't get too cocky!"

"Don't worry, I won't," Ash assured her, placing the folded tank top beside the bin. "I'll just build off that confidence!"

As soon as the shirt was out of his grasp, however, it came unraveled in a matter of seconds. Ash let out a strangled cry, which caught Misty's attention. "You alright over there?"

"Uh…yeah, fine!" Ash quickly cried. "Just…choked a little. That's all."

"Choked?" Misty repeated. "On…nothing?"

"No, on my…spit," Ash refuted, cringing afterwards.

Misty furrowed her brow, but chose not to ask any further questions and instead turned back towards the dryer. Ash, on the other hand, let out a quiet sigh of relief before picking the tank top back up.

"Why'd you do that?" Ash whined, making sure to keep his voice low so Misty wouldn't hear him. He folded the shirt the exact same way he had before, and once it was back in its neat square, he placed it back down beside the basket.

Where it promptly unraveled again.

Ash could feel a vein about to pop out of his forehead. When he glanced over at Pikachu, he saw that not only had the mouse folded the navy shirt from before, but he had already folded three more and was onto the fifth.

How am I getting beat out at folding clothes by a Pokémon?!

Retrieving the tank top once again, Ash crumpled it up into a tight ball between his hands. Once he dropped it beside the basket, it remained in its jumbled mess, causing Ash to grin.

Now I got it!

He picked another shirt out of the basket: a light pink t-shirt with a bow at the collar. He balled it up in a similar fashion to the tank top and dropped the sphere of fabric beside the original one, grinning when that one stayed in place as well. Ash began doing that with all of the clothes in the basket, soon out-folding Pikachu and clearing the basket.

"Okay, here are Michelle's-wait, you finished the first basket already?"

Ash looked up at Misty and nodded proudly. "Yep, all done! And it was a total piece of cake!"

Misty hummed and looked over at Pikachu's pile, her eyes lighting up. "Wow, Pikachu! You're really good at that!"

"Pi-ka!" Pikachu squeaked happily.

Misty leaned on her toes to examine Ash's work, but as soon as she saw the messy balls of clothing her face fell. "Ash! What is that?!"

"Elizabeth's clothes," Ash replied with a sense of obviousness.

"You can't fold clothes like that!" Misty cried.

"Why not?" Ash practically whined. "They wouldn't stay any other way!"

"Yeah, sometimes they come undone," Misty sighed. "But you're supposed to fold it again! If you just crumple the clothes up like that they're going to wrinkle."

"Who cares if they're a little wrinkly?" Ash asked. "They're just clothes!"

"Because it messes them up, and then they look bad…" Misty grumbled as she trailed off.

"Okay, I'll just…un-ball them," Ash assured her, picking up one of the shirts and pulling it out of the tight wad he'd made. "And I'll do my best to fold them the right way."

"Maybe for now we should move on to something else," Misty suggested. "I think you should take a break from the clothes, and truthfully, I wouldn't mind getting out of the laundry room for a bit. It's starting to feel too stuffy for my liking."

Ash frowned, but nevertheless backed away from the empty laundry basket. Misty quickly jumped in to unfold the balled up shirts, finishing in a matter of minutes.

"I could've helped with that, you know," Ash muttered.

"I do," Misty replied. "But it was no big deal. Let's just move onto the next chore on my list."

"Which is…?" Ash prodded.

"Cleaning the bathroom," Misty responded, smirking at her husband. "And if you didn't like folding the laundry, I don't think you're going to like this much either."

XXX

"Oh my-"

"I told you."

"Our kids are disgusting!"

"Yeah, I know."

"And that's coming from me!"

"Yeah, I know."

A look of horror remained on Ash's face as he scanned the bathroom that primarily belonged to his and Misty's three children. Their toothbrushes and hairbrushes were spread all over the counter, tubes of open toothpaste intermixed. There were towels on the floor, Elizabeth's bath toys strewn almost everywhere except the wire caddy they belonged in. The garbage can was overflowing, tissues and empty boxes surrounding it.

"Why do they listen to us when we ask them to clean up the rest of the house, but the bathroom looks like a tornado ripped through it?" Ash questioned.

"They create this whole mess in a matter of minutes," Misty sighed. "When I come in here to bathe Elizabeth at night, it's totally spotless. But by the next morning, after all the kids have gotten ready for the day, it looks like this."

"That quick, huh?" Ash muttered.

"I think they consider it a talent," Misty replied with a smirk. She stepped forward and began picking up the discarded towels, tossing them into a nearby hamper. "And to think, these were so close to making it in there…"

Ash stepped further into the bathroom as well and started gathering Elizabeth's bath toys. It didn't take him very long (they were numerous, but they were also small and light) and once he had them all rounded up, he placed them back in the caddy where they belonged.

"Thanks," Misty sighed, standing back up to her full height.

"No problem!" Ash chuckled. "This is already way easier than folding all that laundry."

"Yeah, that was," Misty quipped.

Ash hummed and tilted his head. "What do you mean 'that'? We just have to pick up all the stuff they left lying around, right?"

"We do have to finish that," Misty confirmed. "But we do also have to actually clean the bathroom."

"I thought picking stuff up was cleaning," Ash murmured.

"Part of it. But I'm talking about actually cleaning. Like…heavy duty, down-and-dirty type cleaning."

Before Ash could ask any further questions, Misty skirted towards the toilet. Ash raised an eyebrow, but it quickly hit him what she had meant. "You mean…?"

Misty turned her head towards him and nodded solemnly.

"Ugh," Ash groaned, slumping his shoulders.

"But look, Aiden did us a favor," Misty teasingly commented.

Ash was afraid to ask, but decided to take his chance. "What did he do?"

"He left the seat up," Misty snickered.

Ash rolled his eyes. "You would think our son would have a bit more common sense than that. He shares this bathroom with two sisters, after all. Leaving the seat up like that isn't really fair to them."

"Very true," Misty agreed. "Try and remember that the next time you leave the seat up in our bathroom."

Ash suddenly looked completely offended. "What?! I never leave the seat up!"

"Yes you do!" Misty laughingly argued. "You do it every single day!"

"I do not!"

"Right, so if I go into our bathroom right now, the toilet seat will be down?"

"Probably."

"Probably?!"

"I don't remember what I did the last time I went in there!"

"Which means you probably left the seat up."

"Don't we have to finish cleaning up in here first before we start thinking about the other bathrooms?" Ash pressed, eager to get off the subject of him possibly leaving the toilet seat up.

"Yes, we do," Misty replied, picking up a toilet brush and handing it over to Ash. "Have fun!"

Once again, his eyes nearly fell out of his head. "WHAT?!"

"You said you wanted to help," Misty retorted calmly. "So you can clean the toilet while I start cleaning the bathtub. That takes much longer than the toilet anyway."

Ash grimaced, but still took the brush from his wife. He knelt down by the bowl and took a quick look at it, loudly groaning the moment he laid eyes on it. "Our son also has terrible aim, apparently…"

Misty laughed and shook her head. "Yeah, I figured that out quite a while ago…"

XXX

"That was the worst thing ever."

Misty snickered. Ash was leaning against the wall, his eyes wide yet the rest of his face reflecting sheer exhaustion.

"It was only three bathrooms," Misty reasoned with him. "Could you imagine if we lived in a giant mansion or something?"

"No," Ash quickly countered. "I'm just really glad we don't right about now."

"Well, the good news is we're almost finished," Misty continued. "All that's left is changing the sheets on everybody's beds."

"Ugh, there's even more beds than bathrooms," Ash groaned.

"Yeah, but they won't take as long as the bathrooms," Misty replied. "Especially with you helping me out!"

Ash finally peeled himself off the wall. He still didn't look thrilled, but it was hard for him to ignore Misty's compliments of him.

"It'll go even faster if we split up," Misty mused. "Or do you want me to show you how to do it first?"

"I think I can manage," Ash jibed.

"I'll even make it easy for you," Misty decided, her voice playful. "I'll change the sheets on our bed, since it's the biggest one. You can start with one of the kids', your pick."

Ash thought about it for a moment before declaring, "I guess I'll change Michelle's. Her room is usually the cleanest, so I shouldn't be stepping on anything or getting tripped up."

"Good choice," Misty commended. "That definitely makes hers the easiest. Elizabeth's bed is smaller, but that floor can be a nightmare."

"Yeah, I'd rather not be slipping on any stuffed Pokémon or tripping over tutus today," Ash muttered.

Misty giggled before instructing him, "The extra sheets for Michelle's bed are in her closet, on the top shelf. Just pick one of them out, take off the ones that are on now, and put on the new ones. Easy enough!"

Ash grinned confidently and nodded. As Misty skirted down the hall towards their bedroom, Ash took a sharp right and entered Michelle's room, which was, as he had expected, relatively spotless. Michelle tended to be much more responsible than her siblings and therefore kept a much tidier bedroom.

Walking over to her closet, Ash pulled open the white doors and scanned its contents. Up on the highest shelf, just as Misty had said, were a few fresh sheet sets. He picked the first one he saw: pool blue and covered in white dots that resembled water color. Ash carried the new sheets over to the bed, and jumped a bit when he saw a ball of yellow fur curled up on the pillow.

"Pikachu," Ash sighed.

The mouse lifted his head, ears twitching upon hearing his trainer's voice.

"Is there where you've been the whole time?" Ash complained.

"Pi-ka," Pikachu confirmed.

"Lucky you," Ash griped. "I just had to spend the last hour cleaning toilets."

Pikachu snickered, causing Ash to shake his head. "Yeah, it's real funny when you got to nap through the whole thing."

"Pi-ka Pikachu," Pikachu babbled.

"I know you helped with the laundry," Ash breathed. "But that was nowhere near as traumatizing as the bathrooms."

"Chu."

Ash huffed and tilted his head, grabbing onto the comforter and lifting it off the bed. "Well, since you're here now, you want to help me change Michelle's sheets?"

Pikachu nodded and flew off the pillow, pushing it to the floor with his paws. After that, he crawled over to the edge of the bed, beginning to pull the sheets off with his teeth.

"Nice job," Ash chuckled. "See? I was right! This does go a whole lot faster when we help out!"

"Pi!" Pikachu agreed.

"But it's still taken a while…" Ash thought aloud, helping Pikachu to remove the sheets from Michelle's bed. "I can only imagine how long it takes Misty when she has to do all of this stuff alone."

Pikachu nodded solemnly.

"I gotta tell ya, buddy, I don't think I'd make a very good mom," Ash laughed dryly. "Or a very good homemaker."

"Pika, pikapi," Pikachu squeaked.

"Misty does, though," Ash mused. "She's great at both of those things! I really admire her."

Together, Ash and Pikachu were able to strip Michelle's mattress of its sheets, leaving the pure white rectangle bare and ready for the new set.

"Kay, let's get these new sheets on!" Ash cheered. "The quicker we get them on, the sooner we can move on to the next bed."

XXX

Once all the sheets had been changed, Ash was totally beat. He collapsed on his and Misty's freshly outfitted bed, groaning the moment his head hit the pillow.

"I don't think I'll ever be able to move again," Ash complained. "Why was this even more exhausting than all of my hardcore training?"

"Pi…" Pikachu moaned. He too had thrown himself down, this time at the foot of the bed.

Misty breezed into the room, smiling to herself once she saw Ash and Pikachu sprawled out on the bed. "Wow, those chores really wore you guys out, huh?"

Ash picked his head up and frowned. "I don't know how you do all that stuff without any help."

"You get used to it," Misty replied with a shrug. "After 8 years of this old routine, I can move pretty quickly. Still haven't found a way to make it fun, though."

Ash smirked and put his head back down. "I get that."

"I did have more fun doing them with you."

Ash raised an eyebrow and made to pick his head up again, but Misty pounced on the bed and rested her own head against his before he could make his move.

"You did?" Ash questioned.

Misty hummed and nodded her head. "You tend to make most things more fun than they are. And you did a surprisingly good job!"

"Really?" Ash asked incredulously. "Even after I balled up all of Elizabeth's clothes?"

"That was one hiccup," Misty scoffed. "Besides, you bounced back! You did a good job cleaning the bathrooms. And Michelle and Elizabeth's beds look very neat! You barely even left a wrinkle in those sheets."

"Glad I could make such an impression," Ash teased.

"I really am grateful for your help," Misty murmured, her tone taking on a more serious tone. "I know this wasn't the most fun way to spend a day without the kids, but it was important. And with you helping out, it saved a lot of time. So thank you."

She kissed his cheek, bringing a warm smile to Ash's face. Fluttering her eyelashes, Misty danced her fingers up her husband's arm and continued, "Now, if you want to do something more fun…"

Ash groaned and tilted his head back. "Now?! But I'm so tired!"

Misty blinked and asked, "Really? You're actually too tired for…this?"

She craned her neck, this time pressing her lips against Ash's. He hesitated at first, but then began to return her kiss, whining once Misty pulled away too quickly.

"No," Ash finally grumbled, roughly flipping onto his back. "I think I need a reward, honestly."

Pikachu sighed tiredly and jumped off the foot of Ash and Misty's bed, quickly scurrying out of their room with a long yawn.

At least there's three other clean beds for me to take a nap on…